HX 


IRLF 


LIBRARY 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA. 


Class 


United  States 

Constitution  and 

Socialism 

By  SILAS  HOOD 


Concealed  History  of  Revolutionary  Period 
Exposed  to  the  light  of  day. 


PRICE  10  CENTS 


MILWAUKEE 

SOCIAL-DEMOCRATIC  PUBLISHING  CO. 
SIXTH  AND  CHESTNUT  STS. 

1911 


Vorwaerts 

A  Milwaukee  German  Socialist  Weekly. 

The  history  of  Socialism,  theoretical  and  practical, 
has  been  told  im  the  German  language. 

Vorwaerts,  the  Milwaukee  German  Socialist  paper, 
was  established  in  1882,  and  has  been  battling  for  bet- 
ter economic  and  social  conditions  for  the  toilers  for 
nearly  thirty  years. 

It  is  an  eight-page  weekly  paper.  It  records  all 
the  Socialist  news  from  week  to  week.  Congressman 
Victor  L.  Berger  is  a  regular  contributor  to  its  columns. 

SUBSCRIPTION  RATES 
Twelve  months,  $1.50;  six  months,  75  cents. 

A  Powerful  Polish  Socialist  Paper 

It  was  the  Polish  soldiers  who  turned  back  the  tide 
of  the  Turkish  invaders  of  Europe  in  the  fourteenth 
century  when  all  else  had  failed. 

There  are  hundreds  of  thousands  of  the  descend- 
ants of  these  sturdy  Poles  in  the  United  States  who 
are  ready  for  Socialism  when  they  know  what  it  is 
and  what  it  stands  for. 

So  simply  and  so  effectively  has 


Naprzod 


the  Polish  Socialist  weekly,  told  the  story  of  Socialism 
that  the  Polish  wards  are  among  the  strongest  Social- 
ist districts  in  Milwaukee. 

Use  Naprzod  for  Polish  propaganda  literature. 

SUBSCRIPTION  PRICE 

Twelve  months,  $1.00;  six  months,  50  cents.  In 
bundles,  75  cents  per  hundred;  $5.00  per  1,000.  Samples 
sent  on  request. 

Social-Democratic  Publishing  Go, 

Brisbane  Hall,  528-530  Chestnut  St.,  Milwaukee,  Wis. 


United  States 

Constitution  and 

Socialism 

by 

SILAS  HOOD  c\.t,V\etv^~ 

Author  of  "REVOLUTION" 
"PLUTOCRACY",  Etc. 

Brief  History  of  the  "Patriotic"  Achievements 
of  Our  Fore  Fathers 


Statesmen  of  the   Twentieth  Century  are  not 

wise  enough  to  frame  a  Constitution 

for  the  People  of  the   Twenty 

First  Century 


Nineteenth  and  Twentieth  Century  Statesmen 

formed  a  Constitution  for  their  great, 

great,  great  grandchildren 


MILWAUKEE 

SOCIAL-DEMOCROT1C  PUBLISHING  CO, 

SIXTH  AND  CHESTNUT  STS. 

1911 


COPYRIGHT  1911 
By  HENRY  T.  JONES 


C.T/2JS  little  volume  is  dedicated  to 
the  memory  of  the  working  class  of 
the  revolutionary  period  of  1776  who 
fought,  bled  and  died  to  obtain  free- 
dom, but  who,  after  their  unselfish 
sacrifice,  were  robbed  of  the  fruits  of 
their  struggle— robbed  by  the  cunning 
conspiracy  of  an  exploiting  master 
class  of  the  heritage  that  should  have 
been  theirs. 


"The  world  has  never  had  a  good 
definition  of  the  word  liberty,  and 
the  American  people  are  just  now 
in  want  of  one." 

-^Abraham  Lincoln  in  1864 


The  time  is  not  only  ripe  for   a 
a  change,  it  i>  rotten  ripe 


225907, 


INTRODUCTION. 

In  this  brief  history  of  the  recital  of  historical  events, 
which  preceded  and  followed  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution 
of  the  United  States,  it  is  not  the  purpose  of  the  writer  to 
attempt  to  destroy  any  of  the  patriotic  spirit  of  which  every 
true  American  should  be  proud  to  boast.  On  the  contrary,  it 
is  the  purpose  of  the  writer  to  stimulate  patriotism — real 
patriotism. 

We  have  listened  long1  and  patiently  to  the  "patriotic 
sentiments"  expressed  by  our  Fourth  of  July  orators,  who  in 
the  same  breath  have  showered  so  much  eloquent  praise  upon 
the  "glorious  provisions  of  the  United  States  Constitution." 
We  have  heard  the  beautiful  song  so  many  times,  and  we  have 
been  taught  so  much  in  our  public  school' histories  of  the  ex- 
alted purpose  of  our  revolutionary  forefathers  that  it  has 
seemed  almost  like  sacrilege  to  even  hint  at  a  word  of  criticism 
regarding  their  work. 

But  a  careful  search  of  the  pages  of  history  shows  that  we 
have  been  worshiping  false  gods  and  institutions. 

There  is  nothing  more  terrible  than  the  truth,  and  at  the 
same  time  there  is  nothing  more  beautiful  than  the  truth,  and 
the  truth  herein  is  told,  notwithstanding  the  fact  that  some  of 
our  "revolutionary  heroes,"  whom  we  have  long  been  taught  to 
revere,  are  stripped  of  some  of  the  halo  that  surrounds  them. 

There  were  tens  of  thousands  of  real  heroes  engaged  in 
that  heroic  struggle  of  revolutionary  days,  but  the  bourgeois 
historians  have  failed  to  recognize  the  great  part  those  heroes 
played  in  the  battles  for  freedom,  and  have  showered  praise 
where  it  did  not  belong. 

And  there  are  just  as  many  patriots — real  patriots — in 
proportion  to  the  population,  here  today  as  there  were  in  those 
revolutionary  days.  And  these  revolutionists  will  arise  in  the 
near  future — will  -go  to  the  ballot  box — and  overthrow  a  com- 
bination of  capitalist  rulers  wlio  are  more  arrogant  and  more 
oppressive  today  than  King  George  III  ever  dared  to  be. 
And  the  result  of  this  revolution  will  be  decisive  and  sure, 
for  the  working  class  cannot  longer  be  deprived  of  its  own. 
The  Socialists  are  both  hopeful  and  defiant.  Tlje-, &*teej}e- 
longs  to  us.  and  if  bfT^gs  *n  11g  bernns^  it  IF  nyftt  thritjj 
_should  belong  to  us.  SILAS 


CHAPTER  I. 


PATRIOTIC  CONSPIRACY. 

For  more  than  a  century  the  people  of  America  have  been 
taught  to  have  reverence  for  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States  and  to  revere  the  memory  and  applaud  the  acts  of  the 
men  who  made  possible  the  laws  under  which  we  are  now 
living1. 

It  is  the  purpose  of  the  writer  to  show  that  a  careful 
examination  of  thehistorical  data,  that  can  be  found  in  hundreds 
of  public  libraries  of  the  nation,  will  prove  that  the  famous 
constitutional  convention  held  in  Philadelphia  in  1787,  instead 
of  being  a  gathering  that  was  called  to  accomplish  something 
that  would  result  to  the  advantage  of  the  people  as  a  whole, 
was  dominated  and  controlled  by  the  commercial  buccaneers, 
such  as  exist  today  in  the  shape  of  such  persons  as  J.  Pierpont 
Morgan,  August  Belmont,  Andrew  Carnegie,  Victor  Lawson, 
Theodore  Roosevelt,  Charles  Pfister,  H.  G.  Otis,  Whitelaw 
Reid,  Ogden  Armour,  J.  D.  Rockefeller,  J.  J.  Hill,  Henry 
Frick,  the  Guggenheim  brothers  and  other  prominent  citizens 
who  regard  the  workingman  solely  as  a  source  of  profit. 

It  is  also  the  purpose  of  the  writer  to  show  by  undisputed 
records  of  history  that  the  majority  of  "the  great  patriotic 
forefathers"  were  not  patriots  at  all  and  that  they  at  all  times 
represented  the  interests  of  the  "well  born,"  the  commercial, 
and  the  landed  interests  of  the  states. 

The  constitutional  convention  was  the  result  of  a  con- 
spiracy of  the  monied  interests  of  the  nation  to  build  up  a 
strong  central  government  so  that  the  rights  of  property  would 
be  more  than  these  capitalist  exploiters  found  them  to  be  under 
the  old  articles  of  confederation. 

Thirty-nine  names  of  "revolutionary  patriots"  were  signed 
to  the  sacred  document  when  it  was  forwarded  to  the  various 
legislatures  to  ratify,  and  not  one  of  these  men  had  any  more 
authority  to  frame  the  document  as  they  did  than  the  National 
Civic  Federation  has  to  say  whether  miners  or  mill  workers  in 
1911  shall  wear  rubber  boots,  moccasins  or  go  bare-footed. 


The  delegates  were  the  selection  of  the  rich  and  the  members 
were  exclusively  of  the  aristocratic  class  and  were  made  up  of 
lawyers  whose  clients  were  the  wealthy  slave  holders,  owners 
of  large  landed  estates,  rich  merchants  and  money  lenders. 

Not  one  representative  of  the  working  class  was  among 
the  number  of  conspirators,  and  when  Patrick  Henry  was 
selected  as  a  delegate  from  Virginia  he  declined  to  go,  saying 
that  it  was  plainly  the  purpose  of  those  fostering  the  idea  to 
attempt  to  deprive  the  people  of  what  little  rights  they  had 
been  able  to  secure  under  the  articles  of  confederation.  After 
the  constitution  was  made  public  Henry  denounced  it  as 
"pernicious"  and  declared  that  its  provisions  meant  the  in- 
auguration of  an  impolitic  and  dangerous  system.  Under  it, 
he  said,  neither  the  rights  of  conscience,  liberty  of  the  press, 
nor  trial  by  a  jury  would  be  secure.  "An  aristocracy  of  the 
rich  and  Veil-born'  will  spring  up  under  it  and  trample  on  the 
masses,"  he  said.  And  history  proves  that  Patrick  Henry  was 
right.  The  poverty,  unemployed,  low  wages  and  "charity"  of 
today  is  evidence  that  the  constitution  has  not  protected  the 
masses. 

CONTEMPT  FOR  INSTRUCTIONS. 

The  delegates  had  been  empowered  to  revise  the  old 
articles  of  confederation  or  to  make  amendments  to  the  pro- 
visions of  that  document,  but  the  instructions  were  ignored 
and  as  one  historian  expresses  it,  were  consigned  to  the  waste- 
basket. 

The  first  thing  the  delegates  decided  (and  there  were  less 
than  thirty  of  the  gentlemen  present  on  this  occasion)  was  that 
the  vulgar  public  was  to  be  excluded  and  that  none  of  the  pro- 
ceedings of  the  gathering  was  ever  to  be  made  known.  Every 
member  was  sworn  to  secrecy  and  how  well  the  conspirators 
kept  the  oath  is  understood  when  it  is  known  that  James  Madi- 
son, fourth  president  of  the  United  States,  and  last  survivor  of 
the  delegates,  was  in  his  grave  before  the  proceedings  of  that 
remarkable  gathering  were  known.  In  his  "Journal  of  the 
Constitutional  Convention,"  found  in  every  well  equipped 
public  library,  we  learn  of  the  contempt  with  which  the  work- 
ing class  was  regarded  by  our  patriotic  forefathers,  and  instead 
of  the  report  of  the  proceedings  revealing  the  men  in  the  light 
of  venerable  statesmen  we  see  that  their  purpose  solely  was  to 


establish  a  government  that  would  permit  the  building  up  of  a 
commercial  aristocracy  and  an  unlimited  number  of  wage- 
earners,  renters  and  subservient  workers. 

Madison's  journal  contains  about  100,000  words  of  the 
debates  and  proceedings  of  the  four  months  of  the  secret 
gatherings,  and  in  all  that  mass  of  data  there  is  not  a  single 
allusion  to  the  rights  of  the  working  class  or  what  would 
happen  to  the  toilers  when  they  became  more  numerous  than 
the  jobs.  The  patriots  realized  that  this  condition  would  arise 
'in  the  near  future  and  they  gloried  in  such  a  situation,  as  they 
said  it  would  put  an  end  to  troublesome  black  slavery,  because 
the  white  wage-earners  of  Europe,  who  would  be  induced  to 
come  to  this  country  by  the  glorious  vision  of  freedom,  would 
be  only  too  glad  to  work  for  less  wages  than  was  at  that  time 
required  to  care  for  the  chattel  slave.  What  was  to  become  of 
the  black  men  in  the  event  of  such  a  contingency  was  not  once 
considered — not  even  by  Benjamin  Franklin,  who  was  the  only 
delegate  who  raised  his  voice  in  the  interest  of  the  masses  at 
any  time  during  the  convention  proceedings. 

Washington,  according  to  the  journal,  once  did  express 
the  wisdom  of  doing  something  for  the  great  majority  of  the 
disinherited,  but  as  he  was  a  slave-holder  and  a  possessor  of 
large  landed  estates,  he  did  not  press  the  claim.  He,  too,  had 
had  his  training  on  the  battle-field.  For  a  time  he  was  opposed 
to  the  holding  of  the  convention.  At  first  he  declined  to  be 
present  at  the  gathering  and  had  decided  not  to  participate  in 
the  proceedings.  But  the  commercial  conspirators,  realizing 
the  hold  that  Washington  had  on  the  affections  of  the  people 
persuaded  him  to  accept.  They  insisted  that  it  was  a  duty  he 
owed  his  country  and  he  reluctantly  consented. 

And  when  the  representatives  of  the  monied  interests  got 
him  there  they  selected  him  as  the  presiding  officer,  and  in  this 
position  he  apparently  found  small  opportunity  to  raise  his 
voice  as  an  advisor. 

AN  EXECUTIVE  FOR  LIFE. 

Among  the  first  of  the  plans  to  be  considered  was  one 
providing  for  the  appointment  of  a  chief  executive  of  the 
United  States  by  the  votes  of  the  various  legislatures,  already 
controlled  by  the  interests,  for  a  life  term.  A  motion  to  amend 
so  as  to  provide  for  the  election  of  a  president  by  the  people 


direct  was  defeated  by  a  vote  of  nine  to  one,  even  the  state 
represented  by  Washington  being1  opposed  to  any  such  power 
as  that  being  delegated  to  the  people. 

One  of  the  chief  concerns  of  the  delegates  was  that  some- 
thing should  be  done  to  check  rebellions  in  the  various  states. 
A  strong  central  government  was  needed,  it  was  urged,  to  pre- 
vent further  outbreaks  similar  to  Shay's  rebellion  in  New  Eng- 
land. There  the  conditions  had  become  so  intolerable  that  the 
people  had  rebelled.  When  the  soldiers  of  the  continental  army 
returned  to  their  homes — the  men  who  had  fought  the  battles 
and  had  endured  the  hardships  of  the  seemingly  hopeless  cam- 
paign— they  found  that  the  patriotic  money  lender — that  type 
of  men  whose  interests  were  now  well  represented  in  the  con- 
vention— had  been  particularly  busy  and  they  were  hopelessly 
in  debt.  And  when  they  could  not  pay  these  debts  promptly 
they  were  robbed  of  their  homes  by  legal  proceedings  and 
thousands  of  them  found  themselves  in  debtors'  prisons. 

For  more  than  fifty  years  after  the  declaration  of  inde- 
pendence the  debtors'  prison  was  an  ulcer  that  the  patriotic 
forefathers  had  not  deemed  it  advisable  to  consign  to  oblivion, 
and  in  1826,  years  after  Washington  had  been  in  his  grave, 
there  were  hundreds  of  prisons  where  deeds  of  cruelty  were 
done  that  were  worse  than  those  which  called  for  a  just  cry 
of  horror  regarding  the  treatment  of  victims  who  had  suffered 
and  died  in  the  prison  dens  of  the  British  ships  and  hulks. 
One  den  in  Connecticut  was  known  as  the  Newgate  prison. 
It  was  an  abandoned  copper  mine  in  the  hills  near  Granby. 
There  from  30  to  100  culprits,  owing  from  50  cents  to  $50 
were  confined,  their  feet  being  made  fast  to  iron  bars  and  their 
necks  chained  to  the  beams  in  the  underground  black  hole. 
The  darkness  was  intense,  the  caves  reeked  with  filth;  vermin 
abounded  and  the  victims  were  in  worse  physical  condition 
than  the  sufferers  of  Anderson  prison.  In  the  dampness  and 
filth  their  clothes  rotted  on  their  bodies ;  sores  made  by  the 
chains  became  putrid  and  foul  smelling,  and  the  helpless  in- 
mates died  of  gangrene.  And  some  of  the  men  in  those  dens 
had  carried  muskets  in  the  war  of  the  revolution.  Even  in 
Philadelphia  at  the  very  time  the  patriots  were  drawing  up  the 
constitution  there  were  debtors'  jails  where  the  exploited  were 
further  enslaved  by  the  ruling  commercial  class. 


CHAPTER  II. 
POWERFUL  EXECUTIVES  FIRST  CONSIDERED. 

Immediately  after  the  members  of  the  constitutional  con- 
vention had  decided  upon  the  rules  of  procedure,  had  sworn 
every  member  to  secrecy  and  had  decided  that  the  newspapers 
would  not  be  permitted  to  print  the  proceeding's  of  the  gather- 
ing, they  proceeded  to  accomplish  the  business  for  which  they 
had  been  selected  by  the  moneyed  interests  of  the  nation. 

Mr.  Edmund  Randolph,  of  Virginia,  had  already  prepared 
articles  and  this  document  no  doubt  had  had  the  approval  of 
the  J.  P.  Morgans  of  that  day.  The  first  thing  the  delegates 
decided  upon  was  the  necessity  of  a  strong  chief  executive. 
Congress,  under  the  articles  of  confederation,  Mr.  Randolph 
pointed  out,  could  not  check  rebellion  in  any  state,  and  national 
laws  were  necessary  so  that  any  aggregation  of  agitators  who 
protested  against  the  oppression  of  the  ruling  classes  could  be 
crushed  by  the  national  authority  with  an  iron  heel. 

With  this  end  in  view  it  was  decided  that  it  was  necessary 
to  have  a  rich  man  for  the  office  of  chief  executive,  and  that  his 
wealth  should  not  be  less  than  $100,000.  It  was  also  proposed 
to  pay  him  a  large  salary.  This  Mr.  Franklin  objected  to,  he 
claiming  that  the  chief  executive  being  a  rich  man  should 
serve  without  pay.  It  was  also  proposed  that  members  of  con- 
^ress  should  be  men  with  property  otialifications — men  possess- 
ing less  than  $=;o,ooo  not  being  eligible.  When  the  conspira- 
tors decided  that  anv  such  Qualifications  as  this  might  make  a 
bad  impression  with  an  already  dissatisfied  people  it  was 
further  decided  that  the  property  interests  of  the  nation  could 
be  protected  by  the  members  of  the  upper  house  who  would 
be  men  of  wealth  and  would  alwavs  be  a  check  upon  any 
probable  liberal  attitude  of  the  lower  house.  How  well  the 
patriots  planned,  for  todav!  We  have  a  millionaire  club  in  the 
United  States  senate,  and  if  the  representatives  elected  by  the 
people  should  make  a  mistake  and  pass  anv  bill  in  the  real  in- 
terest of  the  people  the  American  house  of  lords  defeats  the 
measure  and  the  people  have  no  redress,  as  the  senators  are  not 
within  the  reach  of  the  people  on  election  day. 

HAMILTON  THE  CHIEF  CONSPIRATOR. 

Alexander  Hamilton  was  the  chief  representative  of  the 
aristocracy  and  the  ruling  master  class  at  the  convention. 


Hamilton  was  the  principal  legal  advisor  of  the  moneyed  in- 
terests of  New  York  and  Philadelphia.  He  was  the  EHhu 
Root  of  that  period.  There  was  nothing  too  oppressive  for 
the  working  class  according  to  his  view  of  the  situation.  The 
wealthy  were  the  only  ones  to  be  considered  and  there  should 
be  a  standing  army,  well  paid,  that  could  be  depended  upon 
to  prevent  uprisings  among  the  discontented  at  home.  Foreign 
foes  were  not  feared.  It  was  feared  that  the  people  might 
insist  upon  some  rights.  Therefore  Hamilton  was  in  favor  of 
appointing  United  States  senators  for  life  and  also  the  chief 
executive  and  the  supreme  court  judges.  The  English  model, 
he  said,  was  the  only  good  one  on  the  subject.  He  saw  evils 
in  the  states  which  must  soon  cure  the  people  of  their  fond- 
ness of  democracy.  And  the  patriotic  forefathers  listened  to 
that  kind  of  talk  from  one  of  their  own  kind,  without  a  protest 
with  the  exception  of  the  aged  and  feeble  Dr.  Franklin,  who 
later  urged  that  some  concessions  be  made  in  the  interests  of 
the  common  people. 

BRITISH  PLAN  FAVORED. 

Hamilton  said  he  had  no  scruples  in  declaring,  "sup- 
ported as  he  was  by  the  opinions  of  the  wise  and  good,"  so 
long  as  the  mob  on  the  outside  could  not  hear  him  and  that 
they  would  not  know  of  his  candid  opinion  of  the  employed 
class,  that  the  British  government  was  the  best  in  the  world 
and  he  doubted  if  anything  short  of  it  would  do  in  America. 
Hamilton  acknowledged  himself  not  to  think  favorably  of  re- 
publican government  and  he  urged  on  the  convention  to  "tone 
their  government  as  high  as  possible."  He  said  that  nothing 
like  an  equality  of  property  existed  and  that  inequality  of 
property  would  exist  so  long  as  liberty  existed,  and  that  it 
would  unavoidably  result  from  that  very  liberty  itself. 

That  sounds  like  sound  plutocratic  logic.  No  wonder  the 
banker  Republicans  of  Chicago  and  the  financial  and  steel  in- 
terests of  Pittsburg  have  their  Hamilton  clubs.  A  magnificent 
preceptor  was  Hamilton  for  these  haters  of  republicanism  to 
pattern  after. 

It  is  also  to  be  regretted  that  Patrick  Henrv,  a  product  of 
the  working  class,  had  not  undertaken  the  task  his  constituents 
had  urged  of  attending  the  convention  and  have  raised  his 
voice  in  righteous  protest  against  the  conspiracy  that  was  to 
be  successful  in  iwpinz  out  the  sacred  promises  as  guaranteed 
in  the  Declaration  of  Independence. 

10 


The  farm  laborers,  mechanics,  laborers,  and  all  others  of 
the  working  class,  when  their  services  were  needed  to  fight  for 
the  success  of  the  revolution,  were  liberally  supplied  with  copies 
of  the  Declaration  of  Independence  and  when  they  read  the 
radical  announcement  that  the  new  government  would  recog- 
nize the  fundamental  truth  that  all  men  are  created  equal  and 
endowed  with  certain  inalienable  rights  and  that  all  govern- 
ments should  derive  their  just  powers  from  the  consent  of  the 
governed,  they  believed  they  had  something  worth  fighting  for 
and  they  deserted  their  plows,  left  their  families  to  shift  for 
themselves  and  went  forth  like  the  real  patriots  they  were  and 
fought  the  revolution  to  a  successful  conclusion. 

REAL  PATRIOTS  IGNORED. 

And  when  these  real  patriots,  who  had  been  denied  the 
privilege  of  anything  like  a  liberal  education,  returned  to  their 
homes  to  renew  the  struggle  for  existence,  they  left  the  new 
arrangement  of  government  to  the  men  who  had  subscribed  to 
the  Declaration  of  Independence,  naturally  expecting  that  the 
class  which  had  fought,  suffered,  bled  and  died  for  the  cause  of 
liberty  would  receive  the  consideration  that  was  their  due. 
But  not  one  piece  of  legislation  was  inaugurated  in  behalf  of 
the  rank  and  file  of  the  army  of  the  revolution — the  working 
class.  The  manufacturers'  societies — organizations  that  were 
known  by  that  name  in  Philadelphia  and  New  York — pro- 
ceeded to  get  busy  in  the  interest  of  trade,  and  as  a  result 
debtors'  prisons  flourished  as  brazenly  under  the  rule  of  the 
wealthv  forefathers  as  they  did  under  British  oppression.  And 
it  was  these  manufacturers'  societies  that  started  the  plan  for 
a  constitutional  convention  that  would  devise  a  form  of  gov- 
ernment that  would  give  the  wealthy  better  protection  over  the 
property  which  they  had  not  accumulated  by  honorable  labor. 

Washington,  a  careful  search  of  the  records  shows,  was 
in  1776  accused  of  stealing  30,000  acres  of  land  in  the  Ohio 
valley  from  the  British  government  when  he  was  employed  as 
a  survevor,  and  at  the  breaking  out  of  the  revolution  he  was 
being  investigated  under  the  "Quebec  act,"  and  the  disclosures 
at  the  investigation  might  have  resulted  in  a  criminal  prosecu- 
tion. So  there  may  have  been  other  reasons  besides  patriotism 
that  influenced  Washington  in  throwing  his  influence  with  the 
rebels. 

ii 


TEA  PARTY  FRAUD. 

One-fourth  of  the  signers  of  the  Declaration  of  Independ- 
ence were  merchants  or  ship  masters,  and  in  some  way  were 
connected  with  the  profitable  business  of  smuggling.  John 
Hancock,  the  delegate  who  has  the  most  prominent  place  on 
that  famous  document,  was  known  as  the  prince  of  the 
smuggling  crew.  The  tea  that  was  thrown  into  Boston  harbor 
and  of  which  patriotic  act  our  school  books  speak  so  glowingly, 
was  not  thrown  overboard  because  it  was  taxed,  but  it  was 
thrown  into  the  sea  because  the  tax  on  the  tea  had  been  re- 
moved. The  East  India  Tea  Company  found  it  could  not 
do  business  in  competition  with  the  Hancock  gang  of 
smugglers  and  it  petitioned  England  to  remove  the  tax.  This 
was  done  and  the  people  of  the  colonies  were  about  to  reap 
the  benefits  of  cheap  tea.  But  Hancock  and  his  criminal  as- 
sociates saw  at  once  that  as  soon  as  the  tax  was  removed  from 
the  tea  that  their  business  would  be  ruined  and  like  the  patri- 
otic protectionists  of  today  in  our  congress  they  objected  to  the 
plan  that  would  prevent  them  from  robbing  the  people  by  sell- 
ing them  tea  for  30,  40  and  50  cents  a  pound  that  cost  them 
15  and  20  cents  a  pound  in  Holland.  (These  figures  are  not  in- 
tended to  be  accurate.  They  represent  the  profits  of  the 
smugglers  as  accurately  as  we  can  give  them).  The  tax  that 
the  British  government  demanded  had  the  same  effect  as  our 
protective  tariffs  do  today.  As  long  as  the  tax  remained, 
Hancock  and  his  brother  smugglers  could  do  a  profitable 
business. 

But  when  the  tax  was  removed  or  the  protective  tariff  was 
no  longer  in  force,  then  Hancock  &  Co.  could  no  longer  make 
money  with  their  infant  industry.  So  there  was  a  most  urgent 
reason  why  Hancock  should  become  a  patriot  and  make  known 
his  indignation  against  British  tyranny.  So  as  soon  as  the 
English  despots  removed  the  tax  on  tea  and  granted  the  op- 
portunity for  the  people  to  get  tea  cheaper  than  the  Hancock 
smugglers  could  sell  it  the  latter  aggregation  of  patriots 
dressed  themselves  in  the  guise  of  Indians,  boarded  the  East 
India  ship  one  dark  night  and  pitched  the  untarcd  tea  into 
the  salt  water  of  the  ocean.  And  at  this  very  time  Hancock 
was  contesting  suits  in  the  admiralty  courts  that  involvH 
penalties  of  $500,000  and  criminal  prosecution.  The  revolu- 
tion put  a  stop  to  all  such  unpleasant  proceedings  in  his  case 
as  it  did  in  the  case  of  Washington  and  others. 

12 


So  it  is  evident  to  the  unprejudiced  that  some  of  the 
revolutionary  heroes  had  more  reasons  than  pure  patriotism 
for  joining  hands  with  those  who  were  willing  to  fight  for 
freedom. 


CHAPTER  III. 


PROFITS  FIRST,  LAST  AND  ALWAYS. 

The  majority  of  the  men  who  made  up  the  delegates  to  the 
constitutional  convention  were  learned  men.  They  were  men 
of  the  Elihu  Root,  Theodore  Roosevelt,  Chauncy  Depew,  Joe 
Cannon  and  W.  R.  Hearst  type.  They  were  either  men  of 
considerable  fortune  or  the  legal  representatives  of  wealth. 
Their  selection  had  been  guided,  if  not  actually  made,  by  the 
landed  and  trading  interests  of  the  states  and  old  colonies,  and 
their  sole  aim  was  to  devise  a  plan  they  could  by  political 
trickery  or  brute  force  put  in  operation  so  that  the  rights  of 
property  would  be  more  secure. 

And  that  is  just  exactly  what  was  done.  A  careful  read- 
ing of  the  constitution  with  all  its  amendments  up  -to  date  does 
not  give  the  people  a  chance  to  rule.  The  rights  of  property 
against  the  rights  of  the  individual  have  always  been  uppermost 
in  the  minds  of  the  alleged  statesmen  who  have  designed  the 
plans  of  government.  And  the  constitution  at  the  time  the 
patriotic  forefathers  got  through  with  it  was  a  more  formid- 
able document  of  oppression  than  it  is  today.  And  the  work- 
ing class  was  more  brutally  exploited  and  despised  then  than 
it  is  now.  And  the  only  reason  it  is  not  despised  today  as  it 
was  then  is  because  the  working  class  commands  respect  and 
is  able  by  some  degree  of  organization  and  solidarity  to  de- 
mand some  of  the  fruits  of  its  usefulness. 

At  the  time  of  the  secret  convention  gathering  the  white 
slave  traffic  was  still  flourishing.  Poor  whites  were  induced  to 
come  to  'free  America  from  Europe  and  "soul-drivers,"  as 
they  were  called,  was  a  familiar  sight  throughout  the  country 
in  the  vicinity  of  the  seaport  towns.  Men,  women  and  children 
were  brought  to  the  United  States  by  these  dealers  in  human 
white  flesh  and  the  victims  not  being  able  to  pay  their  passage 

13 


signed  papers,  according-  to  laws  sanctioned  or  arranged  by 
our  patriotic  forefathers,  which  bound  them  to  the  service  of 
contemptible  wretches  engaged  in  this  traffic. 

BLACK  PAGE  OF  HISTORY. 

The  true  story  of  this  brutal  white  slave  traffic  makes  one 
of  the  blackest  pages  of  history  of  revolutionary  times.  For 
fifty  years  after  the  signing  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence 
this  crime  flourished,  and  that  our  patriotic  forefathers  who 
signed  the  document  of  the  constitutional  convention  were 
aware  of  its  existence  and  provided  for  the  further  exploita- 
tion and  brutal  treatment  of  these  helpless  victims  will  be  made 
clear  in  this  chapter.  That  Washington,  Hamilton,  Rutledge, 
Pinckney,  Morris,  Madison,  Gerry,  Randolph,  Sherman,  Day- 
ton, Dickinson  and  the  other  deputies  knew  of  atrocious 
practices  of  selling  whites  into  servitude  is  manifest  when  the 
following  was  adopted  at  the  convention,  Sept.  17,  1787: 

"No  person  held  in  service  or  labor  in  one  state  under  the 
laws  thereof,  escaping  into  another,  shall,  in  consequence  of 
any  law  or  regulation  therin,  be  discharged  from  such  service 
or  labor;  but  shall  be  delivered  up  on  claim  of  the  party  to 
whom  such  service  or  labor  may  be  due." 

FATHERS  PROTECT  THE  SLAVERS. 

And  this  was  not  adopted  to  protect  the  owner  of  black 
slaves.  It  was  adopted  to  protect  the  owners  of  white  slaves 
and  to  further  encourage  the  inhuman  traffic. 

At  the  very  time  the  patriots  were  deliberating  on  the 
glorious  provisions  of  the  constitution  which  we  are  now  en- 
joying so  liberally  under  the  present  regime  of  wage  service 
and  high  prices,  as  well  as  trust  rule,  white  slaves  were  being 
sold  in  Philadelphia  to  the  highest  bidder,  and  gangs  of  white 
victims  were  in  chains  in  control  of  the  "soul-drivers"  and 
were  being  marched  about  the  country  to  be  bound  out  to  well- 
to-do  farmers  and  others  who  could  afford  to  buy  a  servant. 
And  at  this  very  time  also  the  delegates  had  these  white  slaves 
of  Europe  in  their  own  homes  to  be  worked,  beaten,  poorly 
fed,  and  ill  treated  by  the  wives  and  other  members  of  the 
household  of  the  aristocrats  and  brutal  land-owners. 

This  white  slave  crime  was  started  in  the  early  part  of 
the  seventeenth  century  and  that  it  was  kept  up  until  -fifty 

14 


years  after  July  4,  1776,  is  an  historical  truth  that  should  cause 
us  to  forever  cease  to  have  reverence  for  revolutionary  patriots 
who  would  permit  such  a  trail  of  blood  and  shaftne  to  be  marked 
across  the  period  of  their  time.  A  summary  of  this  awful 
traffic  is  well  described  in  Oneals'  "History  of  the  Workers  in 
America."  One  Scotchman  was  sold  into  servitude  in  Phila- 
delphia for  $80  and  in  return  for  this  amount  he  was  bound 
out  to  work  for  his  master  for  seven  years.  And  according1 
to  law  of  the  states  his  master  was  privileged  to  flog"  him,  and 
in  nine-tenths  of  the  cases  the  victims  were  treated  worse  than 
were  the  black  slaves,  especially  at  a  time  approaching  the  end 
of  their  time  of  slavery.  This  brutal  treatment  was  more 
severe  at  these  times  so  as  to  induce  the  wretches  to  flee,  and 
when  captured,  according  to  law  a\s  prescribed  by  the  fathers 
in  the  constitutional  convention,  they  could  be  hunted  by  the 
authorities  and  sentenced  to  serve  two  more  years  in  the  hands 
of  the  brutal  master  for  presuming  to  try  to  deprive  him  of 
the  services  that  was  due.  Read  that  resolution  over  again 
and  remember  that  both  Washington  and  Franklin  sanctioned 
it  when  they  placed  their  signatures  to  the  document  we  have 
been  taught  to  revere. 

PROFITS  IN  FLESH  OF  BABES. 

Two-thirds  of  the  immigrants  to  Pennsylvania  during  the 
eight  years  of  Washington's  term  as  president  were  white  slave 
victims  who  had  been  lured  from  Germany  and  Holland  prin- 
cipally. There  is  proof  that  the  ancestors  of  the  revolutionary 
patriots  were  engaged  in  the  awful  traffic,  and  there  is  a  record 
which  shows  that  in  one  year  1,500  children  were  kidnapped 
in  the  ports  of  Europe,  and  the  youthful  victims  were  brought 
to  America  and  bound  out  to  service  in  the  homes  of  Puritan, 
Pilgrim  and  other  respected  ancestry  of  which  the  proud 
America  is  fond  to  boast  of  today.  It  was  always  the  children 
of  the  poor  of  Europe  who  were  kidnapped,  and  when  they 
protested  to  the  authorities  over  there  they  obtained  no  redress 
as  the  kidnappers  bribed  the  officials  of  the  small  coast  towns 
to  assist  them  in  the  inhuman  traffic. 

WHOLESALE  KIDNAPING. 

Finally  the  kidnapping  became  so  notorious  in  England 
as  well  as  America,  so  many  children  of  the  poor  of  Bristol 
being  spirited  away  by  the  child-thieves,  that  a  law  was  passed 

15 


under  the  direction  of  British  rule  making  it  a  penalty  of  death 
for  this  kind  of  crime.  The  law  was  passed  to  satisfy  the 
parents  of  the  victims  and  those  who  were  naturally  opposed  to 
the  traffic,  but  at  least  five  historians  present  proofs  to  show 
that  10,000  persons  were  kidnapped  annually  after  the  passage 
of  the  act  and  the  business  did  not  cease  until  it  became  no 
longer  profitable.  And  it  was  profitable  for  fifty  years  after 
the  signing  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  and  the  sale  of 
white  flesh  did  not  cease  until  Washington  had  been  in  his 
grave  nearly  half  a  century.  And  it  ceased  then  because  it 
was  no  longer  a  game  of  profit. 

More  of  the  horrors  of  the  white  slave  business  of  our 
ancestors  who  were  of  the  trading  class,  business  men  and  the 
"well-born"  or  were  able  to  purchase  a  servant  will  be  told  in 
the  next  chapter.  It  is  a  tale  of  horror  that  the  modern 
historian  has  almost  ignored,  but  there  are  enough  proofs  to 
show  that  you  are  fortunate  if  you  can  trace  your  ancestry  back 
to  the  working  class,  or  that  you  cannot  trace  the  connection 
back  to  the  "well-born"  and  the  wealthy  exploiting  class. 


CHAPTER  IV. 


MURDER  AND  ROBBERY. 

The  horrors  of  the  African  slave  traffic  has  been  told  and 
retold.  Filthy  ships  were  crowded  with  blacks  and  the  poor 
wretches  died  by  the  score  of  smallpox  and  scurvey.  But  a 
death  on  the  voyage  meant  a  distinct  loss  to  the  slaver  and  he 
always  made  an  effort  to  get  the  negroes  ashore  alive.  But  he 
was  not  so  much  concerned  about  the  whites.  If  one  in  a 
family  or  two  in  a  family  died  the  survivors  were  held  re- 
sponsible for  the  deaths  of  the  victims,  and  if  the  living  dis- 
claimed relationship  they  were  denounced  as  liars  by  the  trad- 
ers. In  this  way  many  survivors  paid  the  expenses  in  servitude 
of  a  brother,  sister  or  other  relative  they  never  had.  Childless 
men  and  women  were  held  responsible  for  the  burial  expenses 
of  children  that  belonged  to  some  one  else  or  that  never  existed, 
and  in  servitude  they  paid  these  manufactured  debts.  At  the 
Wsteamship  landings  they  were  sold  to  "soul-drivers"  engaged  in 
the  traffic  of  selling  white  flesh  and  the  ignorant  dupes  were 

16 


frequently  bound  out  for  twenty  years  or  to  a  life  that  meant 
servitude  for  life,  because  they  were  never  paid  a  cent  and 
were  frequently  kept  in  ignorance  of  the  date  of  their  expira- 
tion of  servitude.  Their  clothing  was  the  cast  off  rags  of  their 
masters,  who  in  many  cases  later  belonged  to  the  poverty  class 
owing  to  the  mortgage  sharks.  But  they  clung  to  their  human 
property  like  madmen. 

The  white  slaves  were  always  robbed  by  the  slave  hunters 
before  they  landed  on  American  soil.  The  poor  wretches 
didn't  have  money  enough  to  purchase  their  passage  across  to 
the  promised  land  in  America.  But  some  of  them  had  a  few 
valuable  belongings  and  frequently  a  little  money  and  extra 
clothing.  Before  the  victims  landed  they  found  themselves 
stripped  of  everything  they  possessed  except  the  clothing  on 
their  backs,  and  if  one  or  more  of  the  number  made  too  much 
noise  about  the  rascality  of  the  slaver  they  were  conveniently 
found  to  be  among  the  missing  when  far  out  at  sea.  In  other 
words  they  were  murdered  by  these  dealers  in  white  flesh. 

But  real  privation  began  for  the  victims  when  they  were 
sold  for  dollars  to  their  masters  on  American  soil.  Then 
began  a  life  of  toil  and  abuse  that  can  scarcely  be  believed. 
To  prevent  the  white  slaves  from  escaping  they  were  fre- 
quently chained  together  while  at  work  out  of  sight  of  the 
master.  Beating  them  to  induce  more  work  or  faithful  service 
was  permitted  by  law  and  the  records  show  that  the  cruelty 
of  the  masters  of  the  black  men  of  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin  days 
was  tame  in  comparison  to  the  treatment  the  white  wretches 
were  forced  to  endure.  One  of  these  white  slaves  was  arrested 
in  the  good  old  colonial  days  accused  of  murdering  her  mis- 
tress, the  latter's  daughter  and  her  French  maid.  The  prisoner 
admitted  her  crime  and  recited  such  a  tale  of  cruelty  on  the 
combined  part  of  the  trio,  and  proved  her  story  of  persecution 
and  abuse  by  physical  evidence  on  her  body  that  the  jury  hear- 
ing the  evidence  sent  the  young  woman  to  an  insane  asylum. 
Soon  afterward  she  proved  her  sanity,  was  released  and  later 
she  married  an  industrious  farmer  and  became  the  mother  of 
children  who  no  doubt  fought  in  the  revolutionary  war.  And 
if  the  truth  were  known  perhaps  the  result  of  that  union  are 
now  in  the  Socialist  movement  and  are  fighting  the  battle  to 
be  freed  from  wage  slavery. 

One  of  these  white  slave  heroes  was  Deborah  Sampson 
Gannette,  a  "bound  girl,"  who  to  escape  the  ill  treatment  and 
abuse  disguised  herself  in  man's  clothing  and  enlisted  in  the 

17 


army  of  the  revolution.  She  knew  she  could  not  escape  her 
tormenters  by  fleeing  in  her  own  attire  as  there  were  slave 
hunters  engaged  in  the  regular  traffic  of  hunting  down  run- 
aways. That  is  the  reason  the  wise  framers  of  the  constitu- 
tion adopted  the  resolution  they  did.  It  was  to  protect  the  mas- 
ters who  had  purchased  these  white  slaves. 

THE  TRADE  OF  MAN  HUNTING. 

Hunting  runaway  men  and  women  and  boys  and  girls 
from  Europe,  who  had  been  sold  into  bondage  by  the  slavers, 
was  a  regular  trade  and  the  brutes  of  men  who  were  engaged 
in  the  business  were  the  most  disreputable  types  of  humanity 
and  the  deeds  of  violence  they  perpetrated  on  the  women 
victims  they  hunted  would  call  for  lynching  today.  But  they 
were  officers  of  the  law  sanctioned  by  the  constitution  of 
Hamilton  and  his  associates,  and  Deborah  Gannett,  who  was  a 
victim  of  the  traffic  before  the  constitutional  convention,  knew 
that  she  was  not  safe  from  her  cruel  master  or  from  the  slave 
hunters,  so  she  disguised  herself  in  men's  clothing  and  enlisted 
in  the  army  of  the  revolution  under  the  name  of  Robert  Surt- 
leff.  She  was  wounded  twice  and  her  sex  was  not  discovered 
until  she  became  ill  with  fever  when  on  duty  in  the  Yorktown 
campaign.  It  was  in  the  hospital  that  her  sex  was  discovered. 

But  not  once  was  the  white-slave  disgrace  considered  at 
the  constitutional  convention  with  any  idea  of  abolishing  it. 
The  interests  of  the  landed  and  wealthy  trading  classes  were 
the  only  interests  worthy  of  consideration  by  the  fathers.  All 
of  them  were  either  directly  or  indirectly  beneficiaries  of  the 
sale  and  servitude  of  both  white  and  black  slaves  and  they  did 
nothing  that  was  in  the  interest  of  the  poor  workers  as  it 
tended  "to  unsettle  business  conditions,"  and  business  and 
profits  were  of  more  moment  then,  as  well  as  they  are  now, 
than  human  life  or  human  welfare. 

In  the  next  chapter  the  writer  will  show  that  the  consti- 
tution was  not  ratified  by  the  states  until  two  years  and  eight 
months  after  Washington,  Hamilton  and  their  associates 
signed  it,  and  that  the  majority  of  the  people  of  the  states 
were  opposed  to  it  and  that  the  sanction  of  the  various  state 
legislatures  was  only  secured  by  such  fraud  and  political  trick- 
ery that  would  in  the  way  of  political  corruption  and  knavery 
show  that  the  methods  of  Tammany,  the  Rose  clique,  and  the 
Cook  County  Democracy,  when  compared  with  the  tactics  of 
the  patriotic  fathers,  belong  to  the  kindergarten  class. 

18 


CHAPTER   V. 


FREE  SPEECH  SUPPRESSED. 

And  what  was  the  attitude  of  the  people  of  that  period 
towards  this  constitution  which  all  of  our  school  and  university 
histories  teach  us  to  revere  ?  Did  they  welcome  it  with  expres- 
sions of  joy  and  regard  the  delegates  as  statesmen  worthy  of 
praise  ?  The  conspirators  were  in  possession  of  the  most  pow- 
erful newspapers  of  that  time  and  they  loudly  championed  the 
cause  of  the  Federalists  as  the  advocates  of  the  new.  constitu- 
tion were  called.  But  the  people  could  read  and  there  were  a 
few  fearless  editors  who  were  not  afraid  to  tell  the  truth.  One 
of  these  men  was  Victor  H.  Oswald,  editor  of  the  Independent 
Gazeteer  of  Philadelphia.  He  was  arrested  and  was  not  given 
the  opportunity  of  a  trial  by  jury.  He  was  convicted  of  con- 
tempt of  court  for  the  alleged  refusal  to  answer  questions 
regarding  the  contributors,  subscribers  and  owners  of  the 
paper. 

EARLY  POLITICAL  TRICKERY. 

Every  dishonorable  means  known  so  well  today  by  the 
interests  of  our  capitalist  press  was  exerted  to  induce  the  peo- 
ple to  have  respect  for  the  provisions  of  the  constitution,  but 
the  methods  failed  and  the  constitution  was  ratified  by  the 
various  state  legislatures  only  after  the  most  flagrant  political 
corruption  and  political  trickery,  such  as  would  rival  Tam- 
many tactics,  had  been  resorted  to.  The  people  were  not 
given  an  opportunity  to  vote  on  the  matter,  otherwise  the 
document  would  have  been  fevised  in  the  interest  of  the 
masses.  An  illustration  of  the  attitude  of  the  people  toward 
the  historical  document  is  shown  by  the  record  we  find  in 
A.  B.  Hart's  "The  American  Nation,"  page  312.  Dr.  Hart 
is  professor  of  history  at  Harvard  university  and  he  will  not 
be  accused  of  favoring  the  opposition.  In  fact  he  is  a  partisan 
of  plutocracy  like  all  the  rest  of  the  historians  who  have 
searched  the  records  for  existing  conditions  in  those  days. 

But  in  his  history  we  find  that  when  the  people  of 
Rhode  Island  had  an  opportunity  to  express  this  opposition 
to  the  constitution  they  did  it  in  one  section  by  a  vote  of  2,708 
against  and  237  for  the  document.  And  this  was  the  result  in 
spite  of  the  Federalists'  activity  to  make  a  favorable  impression 
toward  the  instrument.  The  vote  was  obtained  in  this  way. 

19 


The  state  legislature  had  previously  voted  to  have  the  consti- 
tution printed  and  distributed  among  the  people,  and  this  was 
done.  Town  meetings  were  held  and  the  document  discussed 
with  the  foregoing  vote  as  the  result.  There  was  nothing  legal 
about  the  voting.  It  was  simply  taken  to  ascertain  the  senti- 
ment of  the  people,  and  it  was  found  that  the  great  majority 
were  opposed  to  the  work  of  the  fathers  who  met  behind  closed 
doors. 

In  every  one  of  the  thirteen  states  the  sentiment  against 
the  constitution  was  as  strong  as  had  been  expressed  in  Rhode 
Island.  And  if  the  people  had  had  an  opportunity  to  vote  on 
the  merits  of  the  measure  they  would  have  buried  it  so  deep 
that  it  never  could  have  been  resurrected. 

P.  HENRY  REAL  PATRIOT. 

In  Virginia  Patrick  Henry  led  the  opposition.  When 
denouncing  the  provisions  of  the  document  as  being  against 
the  interests  of  the  masses  and  criticising  the  secret  session  of 
the  convention,  he  said :  "Even  from  that  illustrious  man  who 
saved  us  by  his  valor,  I  would  have  reason  for  his  conduct." 
Listen  to  that  dignified  criticism  of  Gen.  Washington  from  a 
statesman  whose  eloquence  was  usually  in  opposition  to  op- 
pression and  wrong.  And  this  is  the  man  the  historians  say 
did  not  possess  any  of  the  qualifications  of  a  statesman. 

Henry  wanted  a  bill  of  rights  amended  to  the  constitution. 
He  maintained  that  general  warrants  by  which  an  officer  may 
search  suspected  places  without  evidence  of  the  commission  of 
a  fact,  or  seize  any  person  without  evidence  of  his  crime, 
should  be  prohibited.  He  said  the  constitution  made  no  such 
provision  to  insure  such  rights." 

With  respect  to  that  part  of  the  proposal  which  says  that 
every  power  not  granted  remains  with  the  people,  he  said  it 
must  be  before  adoption,  or  it  "will  involve  this  country  in 
inevitable  destruction."  Regarding  slavery  he  said:  "Slavery 
is  detested.  We  feel  its  fatal  effects.  We  deplore  it  with  all 
the  pity  of  humanity.  But  if  we  are  going  to  settle  that  ques- 
tion let's  do  it  previous  to  adoption,  and  not  afterward." 

POWERS  OF  A  SULTAN. 

Another  anti-Federalist  described  the  constitution  in  this 
language:  "Your  president-general  will  greatly  resemble  the 
powers  of  the  sultan  of  Turkey ;  the  senate  will  be  his  divan 
and  your  standing-  army  will  come  in  the  place  of  our  jani- 

20 


zaries — your  judges,  unchecked  by  vile  juries,  may  be  with 
propriety  styled  cadis." 

The  members  of  the  legislature  of  Virginia  were  largely 
controlled  by  the  business  interests  as  they  are  today. The  ruling 
class  always  took  pains  to  be  represented  in  every  legislative 
body.  Washington  and  Madison  were  on  the  side  of  the  Fed- 
eralists and  they  exerted  all  the  influence  they  could  to  gain 
the  support  of  the  members.  In  fact,  Madison  at  the  time 
was  a  member  of  the  Virginia  legislature.  It  was  a  long  time 
before  the  Federalists  dared  put  the  matter  of  adoption.  And 
when  it  was  finally  voted  upon  the  result  was  89  to  79  in  favor 
of  adoption.  And  if  the  business  interests  had  not  used  every 
art  known  to  them  to  influence  members,  the  defeat  of  the 
measure  would  have  been  certain.  If  the  people  of  Virginia 
had  had  a  chance  to  express  their  opinion  on  the  constitution 
they  would  have  repudiated  it  overwhelmingly. 

In  New  York,  where  Hamilton  was  the  arch-conspirator, 
the  same  opposition  developed.  George  Clinton  led  a  strong 
opposition  partv  in  this  state.  Sentiment  in  the  cities  could 
be  found  to  express  some  admiration  for  the  provisions,  some  of 
the  historians  report,  but  they  admit  the  whole  region  of  the 
interior  was  opposed.  The  same  tactics  as  used  in  Virginia 
were  resorted  to  and  the  opposition  was  defeated  by  a  vote  of 
30  to  27. 

And  in  Pennsylvania,  where  Franklin  had  placed  his  stamp 
of  approval  on  the  constitution,  the  vote  in  favor  of  it  was  46 
to  23,  while  in  Massachusetts  the  vote  was  187  to  168. 

Under  the  articles  of  confederation  the  people  had  been 
denied  the  right  to  vote  directly  on  measures  affecting  their 
welfare  and  in  the  case  of  the  constitution  they  were  equally 
helpless.  Therefore,  after  years  and  months  of  corrupting  and 
intimidating  influences  at  work,  the  constitution  was  saddled 
upon  the  people,  and  it  has  been  ever  since  a  government  of 
and  for  the  ruling  class  aided  by  its  supreme  court  and  federal 
judges  and  always  supported  by  the  senate.  And  even  the 
representatives  in  the  lower  house  of  congress  have  not  been 
representatives  of  the  masses.  The  senate  was  provided  by 
the  constitutional  conspirators  as  a  check  upon  any  probable 
liberal  attitude  they  might  show  the  people.  But  very  seldom 
has  any  of  the  members  of  this  branch  shown  any  considera- 
tion for  the  majority  of  the  people.  Every  man  elected  to 
congress  with  the  single  exception  of  Victor  L.  Berger,  of 
Wisconsin,  has  been  selected  with  the  view  of  perpetuating 

21 


the  present  order  of  wage  service,  profit,  and  the  dominating 
influence  of  big  business  or  the  competitive  strife  of  commer- 
cialism. 


CHAPTER   VI. 


MONSTROUS    SLAVE   LAW. 

Let's  see  in  conclusion  how  wise  our  forefathers  were  in 
adopting  legislation  in  the  interest  of  the  unrestricted  pursuit 
of  life,  liberty  and  happiness.  We  already  have  seen  how 
much  of  that  consideration  was  shown  toward  the  white  slaves. 
Let's  see  what  was  done  in  the  interest  of  the  black  slaves  of 
whom  Washington  was  the  master  of  many.  According  to 
McMaster,  a  historian  who  was  a  great  admirer  of  Hamilton, 
the  first  contempt  of  the  members  of  congress  during  Wash- 
ington's administration  showed  for  the  right  to  administer 
justice  to  the  black  man  was  when  a  committee  of  Quakers 
from  Pennsylvania  drew  up  an  anti-slavery  petition  and  pre- 
sented it  to  the  members  for  consideration. 

The  occasion  for  the  activity  on  the  part  of  this  commit- 
tee was  due  to  a  long  series  of  outrages  against  the  free 
blacks.  Many  of  them  had  been  liberated  by  generous  mas- 
ters, others  had  obtained  their  freedom  through  the  generosity 
of  friends  who  had  paid  the  prices  the  owners  asked  and  some 
had  been  born  free.  But  none  of  them  was  safe  and  thou- 
sands of  them  were  kidnaped  by  brutal  white  men  and  a  regu- 
lar organized  gang  of  ruffians  were  engaged  in  the  traffic  of 
forcibly  taking  these  free  blacks  to  auction  blocks  of  the  south 
where  they  were  sold  to  masters  who  disregarded  their  pleas 
and  treated  them  worse  than  other  slaves,  as  they  declared  that 
no  black  had  any  right  to  be  free,  even  if  his  freedom  were 
purchased. 

And  these  swarms  of  kidnapers  thrived  because  of  a  law 
passed  by  the  congress  of  Washington's  time.  In  1793  the 
senate  and  house  passed  what  was  known  as  the  fugitive 
slave  law,  and  this  shameful  piece  of  legislation  remained  on 
the  statute  books  unaltered  and  in  force  for  -fifty-seven  years 
and  caused  more  misery,  more  injustice,  more  outrages  and 
more  violations  of  the  rights  of  man  than  any  other  piece  of 

22 


legislation  ever  enacted  in  the  United  States.  And  this  mon- 
strous piece  of  legislation  was  sanctioned  by  George  Wash- 
ington, the  father  of  our  country,  for  he  was  president  at  the 
time  and  had  the  power  of  veto. 

CHILDREN    TORN    FROM    MOTHERS. 

McMaster  says,  by  the  provision  of  this  law,  every  slave- 
holder had  summary  power  to  seize,  hold  and  drag  back  the 
alleged  fugitive  to  the  servitude,  from  whence  it  was  claimed 
he  or  she  had  fled.  And  the  abuses  this  led  to  were  monstrous. 
Soon  swarms  of  kidnapers  were  busy  and  masters  who  had 
lost  slaves  through  flight  were  quick  to  recognize  blacks  it  was 
impossible  for  them  to  have  ever  seen  before.  These  kidnap- 
ers were  soon  busy  in  the  towns  of  the  north,  where  blacks 
had  been  freed  for  many  years.  Children  were  torn  from 
their  mothers,  men  from  their  wives  and  wives  from  their  hus- 
bands. These  victims  were  hurried  into  the  holds  of  ships 
and  when  a  sufficient  cargo  was  aboard  they  were  carried  to  a 
southern  auction  block  and  delivered  into  the  hands  of  masters 
who  approved  of  such  measures. 

Before  the  passage  of  this  act  by  our  honored  forefathers 
of  revolutionarv  time  there  were  manv  negroes  in  the  south 
who  had  been  made  free  by  their  masters  or  had  paid  for  their 
liberty  through  the  generosity  of  friends  and  they  were  earning 
their  living  as  wage  slaves  or  struggling  for  existence  on  a 
little  patch  of  ground  they  were  working  on  shares.  But  even 
these  creatures  were  not  safe  and  there  are  records  to  show 
that  all  of  them  were  forced  back  into  servitude.  They  were 
chased  day  and  night  by  men  and  dogs  and  forced  to  sleep  in 
the  woods  at  night  and  keep  from  starving  by  eating  roots  and 
berries.  Virginia  was  the  only  southern  state  that  would  not 
permit  these  outrages  and  many  of  the  victims  fled  there  from 
North  Carolina  for  protection.  Patrick  Henry  was  governor 
of  this  state  at  the  time.  Had  Madison  been  in  the  gov- 
ernor's chair,  the  fugitives'  chances  perhaps  would  have  been 
slim. 

A  PREMIUM  ON  MURDER. 

One  victim,  so  McMaster  tells  us,  had  his  cabin  broken 
into  by  a  gang  of  ruffians  and  he  was  tracked  for  miles  by 
armed  men  and  mastiffs.  He  had  been  forced  to  leave  his 
corn  standing,  which  his  pursuers  later  harvested  and  sold. 
When  these  outrages  were  presented  to  congress  by  the  Quak- 

23 


ers  it  came  out  in  debate  that  the  feeling  had  become  so  bitter 
among  the  slave  owners  against  allowing  any  black  man  to  be 
free  that  they  had  offered  $10  for  all  free  blacks  caught  alive 
and  $50  dead.  This  was  placing  a  premium  on  murder. 

And  what  did  the  congress  of  Washington's  time  do  with 
the  petition  protesting  against  these  outrages?  The  Quakers 
were  insulted  in  open  debate  and  some  of  the  members  who 
made  a  motion  to  place  the  petition  on  the  table  were  inter- 
rupted by  others  who  said  the  proper  place  for  it  was  under 
the  table. 

Abundant  facts  were  placed  before  congress  to  prove  the 
outrages  and  yet  the  patriots  of  that  time,  in  January,  1797, 
voted  that  the  petition  be  thrown  out  and  not  considered.  And 
the  vote  of  disgrace  was  50  to  30. 

And  if  the  disgraceful  act  of  the  fugitive  slave  law  had 
not  been  passed  by  our  wise  and  patriotic  statesmen  of  George 
Washington's  time  it  is  the  writer's  firm  belief  that  slavery 
would  have  died  a  natural  death,  as  so  many  masters  were  free- 
ing their  slaves  and  so  many  of  their  friends  were  purchasing 
their  freedom  that  they  would  soon  have  been  in  the  ranks  of 
the  wage  slaves  and  turning  out  just  as  much  profit  for  their 
masters  as  free  men  and  women  as  they  were  as  chattels.  And 
if  this  opinion  is  true  it  means  that  the  civil  war  with  all  its 
strife  and  bitterness  and  its  loss  of  a  million  lives  was  a  need- 
less sacrifice.  And  when  we  know  that  the  revolutionary 
forefathers  were  blind  to  the  wrongs  endured  by  the  whites 
as  well  as  the  blacks  is  it  not  about  time  that  we  ceased  to  lis- 
ten to  the  adulation  and  praise  that  so  liberally  is  showered 
on  the  wise  heads  of  the  patriots? 

A  search  of  the  history  of  the  world  shows  that  the  so- 
called  representative  government  has  always  been  in  the  inter- 
est of  the  commercial  class  as  against  the  rights  of  the  work- 
ers. New  states  coming  into  the  union  may  adopt  constitu- 
tions in  the  real  interest  of  the  people,  but  our  magnificent 
constitutional  government  gives  the  powers  at  Washington  the 
right  to  say  that  it  shall  become  lifeless  if  they  don't  approve 
of  such  freedom  as  the  initiative  and  referendum  extending  to 
all  elective  offices  including  the  judiciary ;  blacklisting  of  work- 
ers by  employers  a  crime,  and  other  regulations  in  the  interest 
of  the  masses.  I  said  they  had  the  right.  No.  thev  have  not 
the  right,  but  they  do  not  do  things  by  right  at  Washington. 
They  do  things  in  the  interest  of  the  same  class  that  domina- 

24 


ted  the  constitutional  convention  more  than  one  hundred  years 
ago  and  if  the  working  class  wants  anything  in  its  own  inter- 
est it  will  have  to  send  its  representatives  to  the  national 
capital. 

From  barbarian  barter  down  to  the  present  stage  of  con- 
solidation the  exchange  of  products  has  been  propagated  solely 
in  the  interest  of  the  master  class  or  in  the  interest  of  an  ex- 
ploiting number,  and  all  legislation  in  the  interest  of  the 
majority  has  been  opposed  by  the  profit  mongers.  Sometimes 
the  exploitation  of  the  masses  has  been  disguised  under  a  false 
code  of  ethics ;  sometimes  it  has  been  accomplished  in  the  open 
by  brute  force,  but  always  has  the  exchange  been  accomplished 
in  the  interest  of  the  master  class  to  the  detriment  of  the  work- 
ers. And  it  always  will  be  so  until  the  capitalist  plan  of 
exchange  of  products  is  abolished. 

The  people  cannot  compromise  either.  Regulation  of  the 
means  of  life  in  the  hands  of  a  master  class  will  not  suffice. 
If  you  would  properly  regulate  anything  you  must  own  it.  And 
the  workers  having  dotted  the  earth  with  the  fruits  of  their 
industry  are  entitled  to  own  what  they  have  made. 

THE  REMEDY. 

So  workers  of  the  world,  and  especially  of  the  United 
States,  we  are  calling  upon  you  to  profit  by  the  awful  trail  of 
sweat,  blood  and  tears  the  working  class  has  left  on  the  pages 
of  history  as  evidence  of  their  heroic  struggle.  Let's  complete 
the  battle  so  valiantly  fought  by  our  brothers,  and  may  the 
future  historian  be  kind  to  us  for  not  sooner  becoming  aroused 
to  our  rights. 

For  centuries  have  the  workers  looked  to  the  master  class 
for  relief  and  justice.  And  they  have  looked  in  vain.  Profit 
by  their  experience.  Look  to  yourselves — to  your  own  class 
— for  you,  and  you  alone,  have  the  power  to  throw  off  a  gov- 
ernment or  any  condition  when  it  does  not  insure  freedom  and 
justice,  and  erect  a  better  in  its  stead.  And  that  better  gov- 
ernment is  the  Socialist  Co-operative  Commonwealth,  and  it  is 
coming  as  surely  as  it  has  a  right  to  come. 


(The  end.) 


WHERE  TO  FIND  HISTORIC  TRUTH. 

For  the  student  who  wishes  to  learn  the  truth  in  detail 
about  the  struggle  of  the  real  heroes  of  revolutionary  days, 
and  the  conspiracy  that  was  hatched  and  carried  out  by  the 
master  class,  Silas  Hood  recommends  the  following  works : 

McMaster's  "History  of  the  People  of  the  United  States." 

No  copies  for  sale.  May  be  found  in  many  of  our  large 
public  libraries. 

McMaster  is  recognized  as  a  bourgeois  historian,  but  his 
histories  contain  so  much  of  the  truth  that  no  public  school 
or  university  controlled  by  the  capitalist  influence  has  been 
permitted  to  make  use  of  his  great  work. 

Conan's  "Industrial  History  of  the  United  States. 

Fisher — "True  History  of  the  American  Revolution." 

Unterman — "World's  Revolutions." 

Oneal — "The  Workers  in  American  History."  This  book 
should  be  in  every  Socialist  library.  For  sale  by  Social-Dem- 
ocratic Herald,  Milwaukee,  Wis.  Price,  25  cents  postpaid. 

Bogart — "Economic  History  of  the  United  States." 

Simons — "Class  Struggles  in  America." 

Madison — "Journal  of  the  Constitutional  Convention." 
Any  public  library. 


26 


Vision  of  the  Future. 

BY   SILAS   HOOD. 

[Henry  T.  Jones.] 

I  am  looking  into  the  future  and  I  see  a  nation  not  hav- 
ing one  case  of  poverty — not  one. 

I  see  a  race  of  men  and  women  perfect  morally,  perfect 
mentally,  perfect  physically. 

In  that  new  world  I  see  hundreds  of  millions  of  happy 
smiling  faces  of  men,  women  and  youth. 

I  hear  the  laughter  of  children,  the  songs  of  birds  and  the 
merry  chirping  of  squirrels.  The  elk,  antelope,  hounds,  cattle 
and  lambs  fraternize  in  joyous  companionship,  the  huntsman's 
bullet  and  the  shedding  of  blood  no  longer  being  a  dread.  The 
spectre  of  apprehension  had  long  been  unknown  to  man  and 
beast. 

This  new  earth  is  a  garden  of  bloom,  beauty  and  plenty; 
of  music  and  song — a  jewel  crowned  by  man's  skilled  handi- 
work. 

On  all  sides  I  see  harmony  of  thought,  harmony  of  action, 
harmony  of  relation,  harmony  of  intention.  I  see  cultured 
ladies  and  gentlemen,  without  exception,  who  would  scorn  to 
accept  a  service  they  would  not  be  willing  to  return  in  kind. 

*  *     * 

And  there  are  some  things  I  do  not  see.  I  do  not  see  one 
hovel,  or  one  woman  or  child  at  work  in  mines,  mills,  fac- 
tories, offices  or  fields.  The  twentieth  century  spectacle  of 
disorder  has  been  supplanted  by  model  places  of  industry  and 
million-acre  farms  and  the  world's  work  of  the  production  of 
material  things  is  being  easily  and  speedily  done  by  the  har- 
nessed forces  of  nature,  automatically,  or  manned  by  men. 

*  *     * 

Neither  do  I  see  one  case  of  tuberculosis,  typhoid  fever, 
nor  any  of  the  other  and  all  preventable  ills  which  now  infest 

27    . 


the  earth.  Health  there  is  universal  and  the  secret  of  longe- 
vity is  known.  Life  is  everlasting,  and  life  is  as  sweet  asjt 
is  long.  All  of  the  emotions  of  this  superior  life  are  positive, 
*!tlt  negative  emotional  destroyers  of  the  electrons  of  life  hav- 
ing been  lost  in  the  revolutionary  uplift.  Death  and  disease 
are  unbelievable  and  unknown  in  this  harmony  of  soul  and 
flesh.  Music  is  everywhere,  its  harmonious  force  being  a  rec- 
ognized life  builder.  The  constitution  of  the  cell  and  the  ulti- 
mate unit  of  heredity  is  no  longer  a  problem,  and  life  is  a 
mystery  no  more.  Man  knows  what  he  is,  whence  he  came, 
and  what  his  destiny. 


Prisons,  jails,  soldiers,  police,  warships,  insane  asylums, 
charitable  institutions,  cathedrals,  mosques,  hospitals,  ceme- 
teries, monuments,  morgues,  slums,  saloons,  courts,  dirty 
streets,  shoddy  clothing,  intemperance,  brothels,  politicians, 
bankers,  grafters,  money,  profits,  millionaires  and  mendicants, 
and  all  the  other  ulcers  of  so-called  present-day  civilization 
are  forgotten  history  in  this  new  world.  The  record  of  all 
such  evidence  of  riot  had  long  been  consigned  to  the  shelves  of 
antiquity.  In  place  of  all  this  the  face  of  bountiful  nature  is 
dotted  with  parks,  amusement  resorts,  spacious  homes,  magni- 
ficent public  buildings  and  palaces  of  industry  whose  harmony 
of  design  and  color  is  in  perfect  contrast  with  the  bestiality  of 
those  things  now  seen  in  our  moden  Coketowns  and  Pitts- 
burgs  in  the  shape  of  hideous  sky-scrapers,  industrial  dun- 
geons, crowded  business  blocks  and  rows  of  houses  unfit  for 
use  or  shelter. 

And  not  one  cloud  of  smoke  do  I  see.  Neither  stacks 
nor  chimneys  adorn  the  buildings  and  the  culm  piles,  once 
resembling  great  wounds  in  the  earth,  are  now  gardens  of 
roses.  It  no  longer  is  necessary  to  mine  an  ounce  of  coal. 
The  forces  of  nature  equipped  by  the  genius  of  man  now  fur- 
nish light,  heat  and  power  without  the  aid  of  flame.  A  new 
world  of  scientific  progress  I  see  wherein  the  twentieth  cen- 
tury laws  of  physics  have  been  revolutionized.  The  energy 
of  the  sun  is  believed  to  be  forever  and  forever  enduring  and 
that  instead  of  a  constantly  disintegrating  mass  it  is  a  never 
dynamo  or  force  of  constant  dynamic  energy  which 

28 


forever  keeps  itself  and  the  rest  of  the  solar  system  in  perfect 
equilibrium  and  harmonious  relation. 


In  this  new  world,  life  is  a  joy,  not  a  brutal  struggle ;  life 
is  pleasure  not  discomfort  and  strife.  There  I  see  life  with 
art  and  life  with  industry.  Life  without  joy  there  is  known 
to  be  savagery,  and  life  without  art  is  known  to  be  brutality. 
In  art  in  this  new  world  I  see  the  complete  expression  of  man's 
joy  in  his  labor.  The  struggle  for  existence  has  long  been 
dead  in  the  dust  of  ages.  It  is  unthinkable  amidst  such  har- 
mony of  thought.  Really  great  problems  are  being  solved  and 
their  achievement  is  sure.  And  on  and  on  through  all  the  cen- 
turies new  and  greater  secrets  are  wrested  from  nature  and 
are  molded  into  the  beauty  of  life. 


Ah,  what  a  perfect  race  of  men  I  see.  I  see  a  race  so 
perfect  as  to  be  incapable  of  an  impure  thought  to  say  nothing 
of  committing  an  impure  act. 

I  see  man  in  this  new  world  without  envy,  without  malice, 
without  vanity,  without  jealousy,  without  hatred,  without 
impure  desire,  without  grief  and  without  fear. 

I  can  also  see  the  observance  of  a  code  of  ethics  so  differ- 
ent from  the  modern  standard.  Many  things  we  now  regard 
as  wrong  are  there  recognized  as  right ;  and  many  deeds  we 
now  accept  as  right  are  known  to  be  wrong.  Truth  is  en- 
throned and  superstition  is  a  corpse  of  forgotten  time. 

I  see  before  me  a  new  world  ruled  by  science  and  love. 


I  can  also  see  traces  of  twentieth  century  cities  in  the  way 
of  parks,  boulevards  and  squares,  but  not  one  statue  of  a 
war  hero  or  a  philanthropist  do  I  see.  There  are  figures  of 
poets,  composers,  scientists  and  other  benefactors  of  human 
progress,  but  the  statue  of  but  one  nineteenth  century  states- 
man is  preserved.  Lincoln  is  the  name  I  read. 

But  the  earth  is  dotted  with  the  statues  of  another  figure. 
It  is  the  figure  of  a  man  with  bushy  hair  and  bushy  beard. 
The  living  representative  was  a  Jew  as  was  the  carpenter  of 
Nazareth.  There  are  four  letters  on  these  innumerable  works 
of  bronze  and  granite.  The  first  letter  of  the  group  is  "M" 

29 


and  the  last  of  the  group  is  "X."  The  inscription  showed  that 
this  man  lived  and  died  in  the  nineteenth  century.  That  pos- 
terity was  indebted  to  him  is  manifest,  and  that  his  life  work 
was  recognized  is  equally  sure. 

*  *     * 

I  see  but  one  race  amidst  the  bloom,  beauty,  music,  labor 
and  song1.  Man  there  is  of  one  color — white — the  blacks  and 
mongolians  in  the  new  environment  having  been  assimilated 
by  the  more  perfect  expression  of  evolution  centuries  before. 
One  language  is  spoken  and  each  and  all  are  citizens  of  the 
earth.  There  is  neither  Jew  nor  gentile,  Mohammedan  nor 
Buddhist,  Catholic  nor  Protestant  —  the  race  is  a  unit  —  it  is 
one. 

And  does  this  ideal  world  contain  a  face  of  satisfied  men 
and  women?  Is  the  mind  of  this  most  perfect  expression  of 
the  great  law  of  nature  content?  No,  the  human  mind  there 
is  not  content  and  the  proof  is  there  that  it  never  will  be  as 
long  as  the  world  survives.  Scientific  activity  is  constant  and 
is  encouraged  and  applauded  by  the  collectivity.  Competition 
is  real  and  healthful.  The  rearing-  of  a  more  perfect  edifice 
goes  successfully  and  unceasingly  on  and  on  and  on.  Dis- 
coveries have  been  made  of  which  we  had  not  dreamed  and 
grains  of  what  our  scientists  believe  to  be  gems  are  discarded 
as  dross.  The  greatest  triumphs  with — not  against — nature 
are  won.  And  still  man  found  more  wonderful  glimpses  of 
natural  truth.  The  mind  of  man  in  this  new  world  is  con- 
stantly striving1  for  higher,  greater  and  better  things.  Man 
having  been  permitted  to  become  so  perfect  morally,  mentally 
and  physically  ever  strives  to  make  the  world  brighter  than  he 
found  it.  To  seek  to  master  the  higher  and  nobler  problems 
of  life  is  the  incentive  that  is  moving  this  neiv  world. 

*  *     * 

If  man  should  ever  reach  a  plane  of  complete  satisfaction 
and  content  the  world  would  go  back  into  the  night.  But  do 
not  'fear.  Human  nature  is  all  right ;  it  is  not  even  part1 
wrong.  We  do  not  have  to  change  human  nature.  It  is  the 
one  certain  powerful  force  in  speeding  man  on  toward  the 
heights  of  truth  and  justice,  and  he  will  not — he  cannot  fail. 
With  this  powerful  force  completely  attuned  there  is  nothing 
impossible  for  the  human  mind  to  attain  if  it  is  right  that  it 
should  be  attained. 

And  that  new  world  I  see  is  coming  as  surely  as  it  has' a 
right  to  come. 

30 


And  we  students  of  philosophy  who  can  *>(-?  Jther,  coming 
of  this  new  life  that  is  to  be,  and  who  "en  joy  the  majestic  pic- 
ture of  the  future  so  generously,  have  no  more  right  to  the 
privilege  of  this  glorious  vision  than  have  you.  Seek  and 
learn.  The  proved  treasures  of  man's  master  mind  are  for 
you  as  well  as  for  those  who  have  sought  and  found.  The 
world  is  here  for  you  to  have,  to  hold  and  to  enjoy.  We  are 
pleading  with  you.  So  come!  Come!! 


But  why  is  it  that  I  can  see  this  vision  of  the  splendor 
of  a  future  life  on  earth  and  you  cannot  see  it? 

It  is  because  I  am — but  I'll  not  tell  you.  It  might  offend 
you,  and  perhaps  you  would  not  understand.  But  you  who 
are  really  class-conscious  and  have  studied  life  from  the  right 
point  of  view  will  understand  and  will  knozv  what  I  am. 

Milwaukee,  1911. 


;•.       ':--•;,    CONTENTS. 

PAGE. 

Dedication  2 

Introduction 4 

Patriotic  Conspiracy 5 

Contempt  for  Instructions 6 

An  Executive  for  Life 7 

Powerful  Executives  First  Considered 9 

Hamilton  the  Chief  Conspirator 9 

British  Plan  Favored : 10 

Real  Patriots  Ignored 1 1 

Tea-Party  Fraud  12 

Profits  First,  Last  and  Always 13 

Black  Page  of  History 14 

Fathers  Protect  the  Slavers : 14 

Profits  in  Flesh  and  Babes 15 

Wholesale  Kidnaping"   15 

Murder  and  Robbery 16 

Trade  in  Man-Hunting 18 

Free  Speech   Suppressed 19 

Early  Political  Trickery 19 

Patrick  Henry,  Real  Patriot 20 

Monstrous  Slave  Law 22 

Children  Torn  from  Mothers 23 

Premium  on  Murder 23 

The  Remedy 25 

Where  to  Find  Historical  Truth 26 

Vision  of  the  Future 27 


SOCIALIST  BOOKS 

Capital — Karl  Marx— ^The  fountain  spring  of  the  present  day 
tide  of  Socialism.  Three  volumes.  $2.00  each,  postpaid. 

They  Must,  or  God  and  the  Social-Democracy— Kutter— A 
powerful  book,  showing  the  strength  and  justice  of  our 
contentions.  Price,  postpaid,  $1.00. 

Struggles  for  Existence — Walter  Thomas  Mills— This  school 
teacher  has  "the  method"  needed  to  make  even  the  most 
stubborn  pay  attention.  Price,  postpaid,  $2.50. 

Woman  and  Socialism— Bebel — Armed  with  facts,  Bebel  re- 
veals with  wonderful  eloquence  the  utter  moral  and  ma- 
terial destitution,  to  which  the  present  social  system 
inevitably  leads.  Price,  postpaid,  $1.50. 

The  Class  Struggle — Kjautsky — A  scholarly  investigation, 
convincing  in  style.  Price,  50  cents;  paper,  25  cents, 
postpaid. 

Class  Struggle  in  America — Simons — An  indispensable  book 
to  every  American  workingman.  Cloth,  50  cents;  paper, 
25  cents,  postpaid. 

History  of  the  Workers  in  America — James  O'Neal — This 
book  contains  facts,  generally  withheld  from  the  masses 
for  obvious  reasons.  The  authorities  are  given  every- 
where for  each  statement.  They  are  unimpeachable. 
Paper  cover,  25  cents,  postpaid. 

War,  What  For?— Kirkpatrick— This  book  is  the  strongest 
publication  yet  on  the  subject,  and  ought  to  be  in  the 
hands  of  every  man  and  woman  of  the  United  States. 
The  facts  given  are  as  startling  as  they  are  uncontro- 
vertible.  Price,  $1.20,  postpaid. 

Socialists  at  Work — Robert  Hunter — A  review  of  Socialists' 
labors  the  world  over.  Written  in  Hunter's  style.  Cloth, 
$1.50  net;  postage  14  cents  extra.  Paper,  25  cents,  post- 
age 10  cents  extra. 

Socialism  and  the  Social  Movement — Werner  Sombart — A 
fair  account  by  a  non-Socialist  of  the  causes  and  of  the 
results  of  Socialism  so  far.  Price,  $1.50  net.  Postage 
12  cents  extra. 

Fabian  Essays — Shaw  and  Others — Cloth  bound.  The  name 
of  each  contributor  is  a  guarantee  of  value,  a  clean  bill 
of  health.  Price,  60  cents,  postpaid. 

Twentieth  Century  Socialism — lEdward  Kelly — A  lecturer  on 
economics  of  the  University  of  Columbia.  Gives  his 
views  on  Socialism  to  the  public.  Price,  $1.75  net;  Post- 
age 8  cents  extra. 

Plutocracy — Henry   T.  Jones — An  allegory  showing:  how  the 
capitalists  are  devouring  themselves.    Ten  cents. 
All  books  sent  postpaid,  except  those  where  extra  postage 

is  mentioned. 

Milwaukee  Social-Democratic  Publishing  Co. 

Brisbane  Hail,  528-532  Chestnut  St.,  MILWAUKEE,  WIS. 


u 


RETURN 
TO 


CIRCULATION  DEPARTMENT 

•  198  Main  Stacks 

3 


LOAN  PERIOD  1 
HOME  USE 


ALL  BOOKS  MAY  BE  RECALLED  AFTER  7  DAYS. 

Renewls  and  Recharges  may  be  made  4  days  prior  to  the  due  date. 

Books  may  be  Renewed  by  calling  642-3405. 

DUE  AS  STAMPED  BELOW 


. 

OCT  1  R  1997 

IJ   C  RPOtfPi  crv 

FORM  NO.  DD6 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA,  BERKELEY 
BERKELEY  CA  94720-6000 


YB  07805 


